Touring on two-wheel vehicles has been around for a very long time. Specifically, self-propelled cycling has been practiced for different reasons, i.e., recreational, commuting, delivering goods, racing, etc. Cycling often involves carrying luggage, and various equipment and accessories have been developed to meet this need. For instance, racks have been designed to attach to bicycles so that bags of various sizes may be quickly hooked on and off a bicycle. The weight of such bags and accessories that are attached to a bicycle is an important issue as a self propelled rider needs to carry all that is attached to the bicycle up and down hills.
A new trend called “bikepacking” has recently evolved with a view to reducing as much as possible the weight of the accessories that are used to carry one's belongings on a bicycle. In “bikepacking”, full-fledged metal racks that were formerly used to attach the bags to the bicycles are eliminated and the bags are cinched directly to various parts of the bike by means of mechanical attachments such as straps, buckles, velcros, snaps and such.
One of the most convenient locations to fit a bag on a bicycle is the space underneath and/or rearward of the seat, extending over the rear wheel. Many types of bicycle racks have been devised to accommodate bags to fit in this space. However, in bikepacking, the rack has been eliminated and bags connect directly to the bicycle by means of straps, buckles and Velcro® to available attachment points, such as the seat post and the seat rails. These attachment points are located fairly close together and connect mainly to the front of the bag while the main body of the bag extends in cantilever fashion over the rear wheel. While the bike rack has been eliminated, a resulting drawback is that of the limited lateral and vertical stability of the cantilevered portion of the bag. Secondly, installation of the bag may be arduous as straps have to be threaded over the seat rails in order for the straps to straddle the rails in the tight space underneath the saddle. In practical terms, while there would be a frequent need to remove the bag off the bike, users of this type of bags tend to consider them as semi-permanently attached and forego the usefulness of removing them from the bike.